Van den Hul is a Dutch company named after its founder, engineer AJ van den Hul, who still leads it today. His name was first associated with phonograph needles: the stylus profile that bears his name, developed using computer analysis at Delft University to mimic the shape of a recording stylus, was initially adopted by Goldring and then by other cartridge manufacturers. The revision of other cartridges later gave rise to a line of moving coil cartridges, hand-assembled in the Netherlands, beginning with the MC10.
Today, the headquarters are in Vaassen, and the catalog includes interconnects, speaker cables, power cables, and digital cables, moving coil cartridges, a repointing service, and some electronics. The company claims to manufacture exclusively in Western Europe, using European-sourced materials, and cables that are free of chlorine and other halogens.
The most distinctive technical feature is carbon. With patented Linear Structured Carbon (LSC) technology, a carbon layer is applied to the conductors and shields; with The First, The Second, and The Third series, the company introduced what it calls the first cables with entirely metal-free conductors. Hybrid cables, such as the D-102 III Hybrid or the CS-122 Hybrid, combine metal conductors and LSC carbon layers. The 3T series uses True Trans conductors.mission Technology, while CNT models employ carbon nanotubes.
For sale you will find The Name Hybrid, D-102 III Hybrid, The Second Hybrid, The Integration Hybrid, The Orchid and The CNT interconnects, and from the 3T series The Valley, The Hill, The Rock, The Mountain Hybrid, The River and The Sea. For speakers there are the CS-122 Hybrid, The Clearwater, The Snowline, The Magnum MKII Hybrid, The Nova, The Super Nova and the 3T The Air, The Cloud SE and The Cumulus Hybrid; for power supplies The Mainsstream Hybrid and The Mainsserver Hybrid. Among the phono cables are The Isis and the D-501 family, among the digital ones the optical The Optocoupler MKII, the coaxial The Digi-Coupler and the AES-EBU Pro. The cartridges are The Frog, The Frog Gold, MC One Special, MC 10 Special, The Colibri and The Crimson.
When choosing a cable, the first criterion is the connection: if the source and amplifier have balanced outputs and inputs, many interconnects are available in both RCA and XLR. It's also a good idea to order the minimum length you really need. For speaker cables, the Bi-Wiring and Bi-Amping versions of Nova, Super Nova, Air, Cloud SE, and Cumulus only make sense if the speakers have double binding posts; otherwise, the single version is sufficient.
For the turntable, you'll need dedicated phono cables, such as The Isis or the D-501 family. Van den Hul cartridges are moving coil: before choosing one, it's a good idea to check the model's output and the phono input of your amplifier or phono preamp with us.
In our Carpi showroom, you can listen to Van den Hul cables and cartridges in the listening room and receive advice on matching them with your components. The same models can be ordered online at audiocostruzioni.com with shipping, asking us for advice first by email if necessary.
